Suh’s ethnography explores the racial, class, and gender-based components of post-abortion care (PAC) and reproductive health politics in Senegal. At first glance, I thought of the term PAC to be neutral. However, my impression of the term soon flipped to be negative after reading Suh’s analysis of how PAC perpetuates reproductive injustice through placing Senegalese women under increased scrutiny when they seek abortions. PAC treats abortions that have already occurred. Health care providers in states with restrictive abortion laws therefore are motivated to misclassify induced abortions as miscarriages. Underreporting the number of induced abortions increases stigma against women who seek out abortions and places them under elevated surveillance and legal consequences.
Suh’s methods include interviews with Senegalese patients, health care workers, and police. She also observes hospital activities and health care workers’ conduct within hospitals when treating patients seeking reproductive health services. I appreciate how Suh interviewed patients, health care workers, and police so she could get all perspectives of those involved in reproductive health politics. She contrasts patients’ reports about the scrutiny they faced in hospitals with the polices’ reports about their unchecked power to investigate women who they suspect of having abortions. These perspectives showcase the power differential between the patient and the provider and the patient and the legal system in Senegal.
A question I am left with is how did Suh navigate interviews with medical providers who mistreated women or police? She disagrees with both of these groups’ methods. How did she conduct those interviews and make them feel comfortable disclosing information while avoiding hostility?
Angela! Great response! I think you pose a great question at the end there. I would really love to learn more about how she actually conducted these interviews. It must have been really challenging to interview people that she disagrees with, especially regarding such a taboo topic in Senegal. I thought Suh’s work was really interesting, and I thought it paired well with our reading from last week. I think that the topic of “maternal conditioning” is very significant in this reading. Women seeking PAC in Senegal have rigid expectations for how they are supposed to act, and which attributes they are supposed to have spanning from their SES, to their degree of social support, age, occupation, and more. I was honestly shocked with how normalized it is for providers to investigate their patients and rely so heavily on their own biases about which types of women would be more likely to get induced abortions. Social factors played a large role in how women were perceived by their providers. I also think you make a great point about how underreporting the number of induced abortions would increase stigma. It’s definitely complicated. On the one hand, you see providers trying to protect their patients, but on the other, this is definitely something that would increase stigma towards women seeking PAC. Finally, I wanted to note the interesting parallel I saw between this reading and Texas’s whistleblower abortion law.